Beamon leaps into row with London

Britain's Olympic bid has encouraged its supporters to "Leap for London" but the capital's latest promotional literature has left the long-jump legend Bob Beamon hopping mad.

Beamon, a board member of the rival New York bid, has written to London's leader Sebastian Coe demanding a public apology after images of him winning the 1968 gold medal in Mexico City were used in a London bid brochure. Beamon has accused London of overstepping the mark and Lord Coe of a lack of respect and has called for the offending literature to be withdrawn.

London's brochure, which was distributed several weeks ago, also features pictures of the US Olympians Muhammad Ali, Michael Johnson and Carl Lewis. Beamon claims it creates the impression that all four men support the bid.

Coe yesterday wrote to Beamon saying that the images were used merely to demonstrate iconic Olympic moments and were from the official archive. "The photograph you refer to formed part of a montage of photographs celebrating unforgettable memories from Olympic history and does not associate you or the other Olympic legends in the brochure with supporting London 2012. I am, of course, aware that you are closely involved in New York's bid."

Privately London suspects mischief-making by the New York bid team and is certain that no International Olympic Committee rules have been breached. It has raised no objections over the use of images of Coe winning gold in 1980 in Moscow's promotional material.

The spat demonstrates the increasing tension as the five cities bidding for the 2012 games enter the final month of campaigning before the IOC's July 6 vote. On Monday the IOC will publish the report of its technical evaluation of the five candidate cities and Beamon's intervention is unlikely to be the last accusation of foul play on the road to Singapore.

It is not the first time that London's choice of images has drawn censure. At the IOC's executive board meeting in Berlin in April the bid team were privately chided for using pictures of IOC members inspecting London's facilities as part of its presentation.

After the incident the IOC ruled that images of its members could not be incorporated in promotional material.